1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hybrid coupling for a smart battery and a battery system incorporating such hybrid coupling.
2. The Prior Art
In the past, smart or rechargeable batteries were connected to external devices, like communications devices and chargers through power couplings. In certain demanding environments, such as military applications, it was desirable to accurately track battery state-of health, state-of-charge, usage statistics and the types of devices that were connected to the battery. Thousands of batteries, radios and chargers were deployed. Batteries that are not smart-enabled, are referred to in this application as “basic batteries.” Rechargeable batteries may also be referred to as secondary batteries, compared to primary batteries which are single use.
When smart batteries were first introduced, they needed to be backward compatible to the basic radios and charges they might be connected to in the field. As a result, an independent bus connector was added to the battery that was separate from the power coupling. All devices could connect to the power coupling, and those connecting devices that were smart, could selectively connect to the separate bus connector. The provision of separate connectors has continued to many modern applications. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,562 shows in FIG. 1B the battery power coupling 158 separate from the system management (SM) Bus connectors 184. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,509,717 discloses a smart battery for a laptop. The prior art illustration of FIG. 2 shows the charging unit 7 separate from the SM Bus coupling between the smart batteries 3,4 and unit 5. FIG. 3B shows connector configurations for tandem smart battery packs. Finally, in FIG. 4 illustrating the invention, the charging unit 70 connects to the Vbat battery separate from the SM bus connection between SM bus host 20, battery selecting unit 50 and batteries 30, 40.
Communications, formats and protocols used with smart batteries are derived from the SMBus specifications, that is Smart Battery System Specifications, System Management Bus Specifications
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a single coupling that incorporates the SM Bus data coupling into multi-battery power coupling.